A green evaluation of ecstasy determination methods by using different greenness criteria

Abstract

The determination of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in seized samples, by employing five different analytical procedures, has been used to illustrate the differences in their greenness classification depending on the selected evaluation criteria. A set of seventeen MDMA seized samples were analysed by: a) liquid chromatography with diode array detection (LC-DAD), b) gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID), c) ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), d) total attenuated reflectance mid-infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and e) diffuse reflectance near infrared spectroscopy (DR-NIR). The studied analytical procedures provided statistically comparable MDMA concentration values. However, the greenness scores of analytical procedures using the three criteria of Green Analytical Eco-Scale, the Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI) and the Analytical GREEnness metric approach (AGREE) provided significant differences but in all cases ATR-FTIR and DR-NIR were the greenest methods followed by IMS, GC and LC. The aforementioned greenness aspects are discussed in this study.

Keywords

• Green analytical chemistry
• MDMA
• Seized samples
• Eco-scale
• GAPI
• AGREE